Sunday, May 31, 2015

Review- LEONARD STARR'S MARY PERKINS ON STAGE VOL. 5

Collects
Mary
Perkins On Stage
strips originally published on September 18, 1961- March 9, 1963

Writer
and Artist: Leonard Starr

Little
did I imagine that this strip was just picking up steam during the
first four volumes. Holy crow this is some great stuff. The trials
and tribulations of Mary Perkins' marriage with Pete Fletcher is the
focus of this book. They are both busy career folks with jobs that
take them away from one another often, something very uncommon during
the time that this strip was making the rounds.

Starr's
artwork is absolutely breathtaking, photo realism on steroids. Every
panel seems so natural and lifelike, and therein lies the deception.
He didn't stage shots, he knew how to draw things that looked
natural. Even drapes and sofas look interesting when he draws them.
He draws beautiful people as well. His panels are all “camera
angles”, and his layout is his “direction”. This would have
made a good television series.

The
first arc in the book deals with an eccentric millionaire named
Walter T. Boniface, who approached Mike O'Hare about financing one of
his plays. There is a catch, though. O'Hare must play a game of
Rhymie-Stymie in order to get money in dribbles of ten grand. I am
not going into too many plots points, as I am of the mind that
reviewers who dole out blow by blows are A) essentially doing book
reports and not reviews, as there is little critical analysis being
done when one does that and B) are robbing readers of the joy of
discovery. One of my goals in this blog, aside from amassing obscene
wealth and total world domination, is to turn others on to good books
that they may have overlooked amidst the glut of collections rolled
out every week.

In
the second arc Mary attends a press conference where we see the
return of famed make-up artist Maximus, “The Man With The Plastic
Face”. This time we also meet Ivor Brand, “The Master Of Horror”,
Maximus' main competitor for all of the roles in these Horror movies.
This is of course a wafer-thin metaphor for the real life competition
that Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff had filling in the void that Lon
Chaney's passing left. Brand is insanely jealous of Maximus'
unbelievably realistic make up and special effects, and his jealousy
drives him to desperate acts. Again, I will say no more, as I don't
want to blow it for you.

I
really, really enjoyed the Crispin Fly/ John Parrish/ Morgana
D'Alexius/ Gerald Philip Jason/ Cassandra Bliss arc which brought
Mary Perkins to Detroit. That was one of the longest arcs in this
series thus far, weaving and ducking and growing. I couldn't put the
book down that night, forgoing sleep to get some resolution. I was
blown away by Starr's attention to detail, accurately depicting so
much of Detroit. The performance was held at the then-newly renovated
Fisher Theatre, as it was converted from a movie theater into a
playhouse in 1961, as it remains to this day. There are many street
shots of Detroit from when Detroit was still an economic powerhouse.
The neighborhood that the Fisher is in has undergone something of a
rebirth over the past few years, as the hipsters paved the way for
the ballsier yuppies to return to it in numbers. We also see the
State Theatre (now The Fillmore), the Fort Shelby Hotel (a Hilton
hotel today), and The Willow Run Terminal, which hasn't been a
commercial flight hub for decades.

The
next arc deals with Mary befriending a nervous actor named Tony Abott
and helping him with his self-centered mother, Cristabel Ainsley. The
final arc deals with a shell-shocked veteran, Malcom “Nine-Lives”
MacNab, who has come to claim a debt he feels is owed to him because
he saved Pete's life when his plane crashed in Vietnam while on a
photo assignment. His payment? He wants the hand of his high school
crush: Mary Perkins. Post-traumatic stress wasn't something on the
tip of people's tongues back then, so this is actually a bold
storyline. Nowadays there are special snowflakes who claim to have
PTSD from online arguments. Those folks do a disservice to those who
legitimately have real PTSD.

Then
there is a 16-page preview of Stan Drake's The Heart Of Juliet
Jones strip, and I have all four volumes aging to perfection in
my backlog. I should read them someday, as it seems great. First I am
going to finish reading all of Mary Perkins On Stage books,
though.

Junk
Food For Thought rating: 5 out of 5.

The
OCD zone-
There
is a production error in this book. On page 64, one of the panels is
repeated and another is omitted. The corrected page is printed in the
back of Volume 6 and will be corrected in future printings, so all is
well.

Like
most strip books, this is presented in landscape format. It takes
some getting used to reading a book this wide, but the material more
than makes up for it. Plus the artwork is much larger than it would
be if they released it in a standard format book.

Linework
restoration: Compiled from many sources such as original art,
proofs, etc. The nipple line is removed and many of these strips are
more complete than they were at the time of original publication.
There are some strips that don't look as good as others but by and
large everything is crisp and clean.

The
Sundays are presented here in black and white. They were originally
printed in color.

Paper
stock: Uncoated stock paper.

Binding:
Perfect bound trade paperback.

Cardstock
cover notes:
Cardstock coating has a matte coating that is resistant to scuffing.